I never – and I mean, never – watch the TV show Cops. But I was channel surfing the other day and noticed an episode set in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. I paused long enough to laugh out loud at the inebriated frat brat boy getting arrested for urinating in public. He compounded his error by trying to get away from the cop who was in the process of arresting him, and I laughed out loud as he was thrown down on the sidewalk and cuffed.
No, I shouldn’t be engaging in schadenfreude, but one of the things about Mardi Gras that I always detested was tourists literally using any available wall as a toilet. It was refreshing to see one get his comeuppance for it. People don’t act that way at home, and they are no longer allowed to get away with it here. He was carrying a drink, and I’m 100% sure that the bar he purchased it in had a bathroom for its customers. If he can’t bring himself to use public restrooms for some reason, he should wear a diaper. The French Quarter is clean – in fact, it’s pressure washed with a lemon scented disinfectant on a regular basis. We’d like to keep it that way.
I don’t know how many young, male tourists enjoy the hospitality of the OPP every Mardi Gras, but sooner or later it’ll reach critical mass and the word will get out that yes, this is a party town and some standards are relaxed – but not all of them. Please, come and enjoy our music, history, food, architecture, and culture. If you want to drink and gamble, those things are legal and it’s a free country. But remember that there are some minimum standards of behavior – even in New Orleans.
